Community Led Local Development delivery for 2021-22 reviewed

Reviews of Scottish Government Community Led Local Development (CLLD) funding for financial year 2021-22 have been published.

The funding, which built on the positive legacy of the LEADER Programme funding, was delivered over two tranches in 2021-22 - the 'Rural Communities Testing Change (RCTC)' and the 'Rural Communities Ideas into Action (RCIA)' funds. 

These funds jointly made £3.3 million of funding available to test future approaches to CLLD in rural and island communities in Scotland and the lessons learned informed the development and delivery of CLLD funding for financial year 2022-23 which is being delivered in two tranches:

• £8.6 million has been allocated to Local Action Groups (LAG) to support CLLD within their areas through the Rural Community Led Fund (RCLF). A breakdown of the funding allocations across the LAG network can be found here. 
• £3 million of funding open to community groups delivered by Inspiring Scotland through the Rural and Island Communities Ideas into Action (RICIA) fund (please note the application window for RICIA closed on 10 October 2022).

Scotland's Rural College undertook an evaluation of the RCTC fund with further recommendations by the James Hutton Institute taken into consideration.

An end of fund report for the RCIA was also published which reviewed delivery by Inspiring Scotland and made a range of recommendations regarding future CLLD funding delivery (viewable here). 

The Scottish Government has committed £11.6 million of funding for financial year 2023-24 to support CLLD across rural and island Scotland.